John Simpson on Iran's nuclear programme

John Simpson, a longtime critic of Iran, writing for the BBC says,

"For almost 30 years, the West has concentrated on the religious, fundamentalist aspect of Iran's Islamic Republic...We have forgotten that Khomeini's revolution was also a declaration of independence from British and American control."

He also goes on to dismiss Israel's justice minister, Meir Sheetrit, preposterous suggestion that Iran plans to build a a nuclear bomb. Simpson says:

"But, if President Ahmadinejad wants to attack Israel, there are simpler ways than building a nuclear bomb.

Iran's close ally, the Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah, armed and trained by Iran, launched a highly successful brief war against Israel.

A guerrilla movement, well supplied with low-tech weapons, out-fought and outmanoeuvred a big conventional army using tanks, planes and artillery."

He also points out, somewhat controversially given the BBC line, that Ahmadinejad is popular throughout the Muslim World:

"Instead of the old Sunni-Shia hostility, there is a new unity."

He goes on to quote Prince Hassan of Jordan:

"The populism of Ahmadinejad and Hezbollah is an alternative to civil society in the Middle East...By recruiting the poor and disenfranchised, they are closer to people's needs than governments are. Which is why they have this enormous following."

This is quite a diversion from the usual BBC line, that routinely suggest that the West believes that Iran has a nuclear weapon programme. The reality is they do not. No Western government has suggested that Iran has nuclear weapons, nor have they produced any evidence that the Iranian nuclear programme is to be used for anything other than civil purposes. This is nothing short of a pretext for belligerence towards the most powerful Islamic nation.

Even in Iraq, where the United States ostensibly invaded to bring about regime change, it now is an occupier denying Iraq the Islamist government that it voted for. The United States oppose any political manifestation of Islam calling it extremism, yet supports a political manifestation of Judaism in the same region. Its belligerence towards Iran has to be viewed in this context: the context of an anti-Islamic Crusade.